A number of methods and devices have been proposed for measuring the speed of objects such as baseballs and tennis balls and projectiles such as arrows and bullets. One class of such methods and devices uses a time-distance measurement in which two positions of the moving object are defined, and the times at which the object is present at each position is measured, the elapsed time of the travel of the object between the two positions is computed from the time measurements, and the known distance between the positions is divided by the elapsed time to calculate the speed of the object. The devices for such measurements typically require multiple optical or other sensors. Such methods and systems can produce valid speed measurements, but the cost or complexity of device design, setup and use can present disadvantages to the user.
Another class of speed measurement devices uses continuous wave (CW) Doppler radar technology. Devices in this class use reflected waves, sometimes sonic in nature, but frequently radio frequency electromagnetic radiation (RF). RF systems can be used to detect moving objects by illuminating the object with the electromagnetic field of the radar and producing an electrical signal at a Doppler frequency which is a measure of the relative speed of the moving object. This technology has been pioneered and developed by the defense industry in the United States, is well documented in textbooks and reports, and has found numerous applications in consumer products. Security motion sensors, industrial position sensors and police radar units are examples of current uses of Doppler radar systems.
Doppler radar has been used in sports applications to measure the velocities of sports objects or players relative to one another or relative to a reference point. Examples of sports radar in use are found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,276,548 to Lutz and U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,705 to Jenkins et al. Conventional sports radar includes “speed guns” for measuring baseball or softball speed, such as disclosed in the Lutz patent. Available sports radar units generally occupy considerable volume, for example approximately 200 cubic inches, which requires that they be maintained stationary when used. Further, such systems may cost several hundred dollars. These units are typically operated by a third person somewhat remote from the players or the objects being measured.
Implementation of prior art CW Doppler radar systems is relatively complex, generally involving the use of an RF oscillator and signal generator, an antenna system to radiate the oscillator output into free-space and to receive a portion of the transmitted electromagnetic energy that is reflected by the moving object, a transmit/receive switch, diplexer, or circulator device if a single antenna is used for both transmit and receive rather than separate transmit and receive antennas, and various local oscillators, mixers, phase-locked-loops and other front-end circuits to heterodyne, demodulate and detect the Doppler signal. This complexity imposes high cost and size requirements on the radar units, which have heretofore discouraged the utilization of CW Doppler technology in consumer applications where extremely small size and low cost are necessary for practical end product realization.
In electronics applications unrelated to those discussed above, Doppler radar systems using simple homodyne circuits have been known. Such applications include defense applications such as ordnance proximity fuzes and target detectors where Doppler modulation provides evidence of a target encounter. Validation of the presence of target signals within a prescribed Doppler frequency passband, and the detection of amplitude build-up as the target encounter distance decreases, are sufficient for signal processing and decision making in such systems, obviating the need to accurately measure or calculate the specific velocity magnitude or speed. For example, for general proximity sensing applications, mere detection of an increasing distance signal is satisfactory. However, applications requiring a speed measurement necessitate determination of the specific Doppler frequency and a calculation of a corresponding speed value. Such homodyne circuits are but among hundreds or thousands of circuits and modulation schemes that in some way carry speed information but which have not been considered practical for providing speed measurements. Accordingly, circuits of a size or cost that are practical for consumer applications such as sports object speed measurement have not been known or available.
Existing Doppler speed measuring devices suffer from loss of accuracy due to the inability to place the unit in or close to the path of the moving object, resulting in a reduction in the speed measurement to the cosine of the angle between the object's velocity vector and the line of the Doppler signal between the unit and the moving object. Further, the Doppler units must be positioned where they are not subjected to damage by collision with the object.
Accordingly, a need exists for a low cost, effective, small size, low power device useful for measuring and displaying or otherwise outputting the speed of objects in consumer applications such as sports and sports training.